Arts incubator breaks ground at King Edward

The first shovel went into the ground at CSpace, the city’s new arts incubator being built at the site of the old King Edward School in Marda Loop.

It’s the start of an ambitious multi-use project that will transform the century-old school into a 4,366 square meter (47,000 square foot) multi-purpose creative incubator housing a variety of Calgary arts groups, and non-profit community organizations, as well as a real estate development that ranges from luxury condos to more affordable artist studios, to seniors housing.

The $28 million project is scheduled to open in late 2016.

“I love that we’re taking a century-old building that’s been vacant for years and putting it where it belongs — right back into the community,” said Mayor Naheed Nenshi.

“We’re breaking ground on something really important here. We’re breaking ground on history. And that is what makes me really excited, because what better way to celebrate history than with art?”

Mayor Naheed Nenshi takes a closer look at the artistic hard hat he used during the ground breaking of cSPACE King Edward in Marda Loop on May 13, 2015. (Colleen De Neve/Calgary Herald)John Lucas /
Calgary Herald

For Reid Henry, the President and CEO of CSpace, Wednesday marked a breakthrough moment in a project that has had its share of ups and downs since it was announced in 2012.

“It’s a pretty special moment for everybody,” said Henry.

While it’s still a few million dollars short of its fundraising goal, Henry said the early stages of construction will focus on revitalizing the former King Edward School site, a sandstone building built in 1912 that’s been vacant since 2003.

“Every time there’s a good chinook wind, it took half the roof with it,” said Henry, in a phone interview Tuesday.

“We decided to resheath it and make sure there wasn’t any kind of rain getting in or anything like that — but you know what? The old bird is like a castle. It’s in really, really good shape. It’s been empty for 12 years. Every winter that goes by, it’s pretty tough on the building, so we wanted to tackle at least that and the parkspace and the sort of deep servicing (that an old heritage building requires).”

And while the day was a celebration of stakeholders who have helped launch the project — including Calgary Arts Development, the Calgary Foundation, Rockwood Custom Homes, Section23 Group and others — Henry said he’s looking forward to seeing what happens when the next group of stakeholders — the arts and community organizations who will occupy it — take residency when it opens in late 2016.

cSpace An rendering shows the new cSpace facility from above.Calgary Herald

Joe Slabe, the artistic director of Forte Musical Guild, the company behind Crossing Swords, which won five major awards at the 2013 New York Musical Theatre Festival, said moving into CSpace comes at a good moment for his company — which includes a pending 2016 New Jersey production of Crossing Swords and a 2016 co-production the company has planned with Storybook Theatre.

“We’re looking at expanding our programming, and doing more partnerships, so this just fits right in with that plan,” Slabe said.

For Alexandra Centre Writers Society president Sarah Johnson, moving into CSpace will allow her organization to grow, particularly in terms of the sort of programming it is able to offer young writers and children.

“We have a youth program,” she said, “that we’re trying to develop more, which we really haven’t been able to because of space and restrictions (at our Inglewood location). This is going to give them the space and opportunity to do more.”

For Calgary Foundation chairman Dale Ens, CSpace started out as a considerable gamble. The foundation stretched the definition of its mandate to buy the school, but he says now, looking back, it was a good move to make.

“We have as our purpose to build a great city,” he said. “To our mind, this project fulfils that mandate.”

Ens also quoted Newfoundland philanthropist Zita Cobb, whom he heard speak at a community-building conference over the weekend, who said something that resonated with him.

“The world is suffering from a plague of sameness that kills joy,” he said.

“What you see behind us is the exact opposite of that which kills joy,” he said. “I couldn’t believe in that (more). This is a wellspring of art. This a wellspring of community and it will become a showcase for the city of Calgary.”

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